On the Ministry of Construction's Information Portal, Ms. P.T.D.L asked: My brothers and sisters and I are low-income people and want to register to buy social housing. Through research, the beneficiaries of housing support policies in Clause 5, Article 76 of the 2023 Housing Law are "low-income people in urban areas", applying current regulations, I have the following questions:
I work in Dong Anh commune, Hanoi city, Hanoi city communes in general and Dong Anh commune in particular, are they called "urban cities"? To determine that I am a low-income person in urban areas.
My brother lives and works in a town in a province bordering Hanoi City. After the merger, the town became a commune, so after the merger, will the commune still be an "urban area"?
Where is the specific regulation so that we can determine what is an urban area, what is a rural area after the merger in accordance with the regulation "low-income people in urban areas"?
Responding to this issue, the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management has the following opinion:
Clause 1, Article 13 of Resolution No. 76/2025/UBTVQH15 dated April 14, 2025 of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the arrangement of administrative units in 2025 stipulates:
People, cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers, and salary earners in the armed forces in the administrative unit after the reorganization will continue to enjoy special regimes and policies applied by region, by region or by administrative unit as before the reorganization until another decision is made by the competent authority.
Clause 4 and Clause 5, Article 26 of Decree No. 178/2025/ND-CP dated July 1, 2025 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning stipulates:
"Town areas or new urban areas that have been approved for urban planning before the effective date of this Decree, now located in communes, should continue to be managed and implemented according to the approved urban planning and when establishing and approving the general planning of communes after the arrangement, they must inherit the approved urban planning content.
Decisions on urban classification issued by competent authorities before July 1, 2025 based on the results of urban quality assessment based on approved urban and rural planning shall continue to be effective until they are replaced, amended or abolished according to the provisions of law.
Based on the above regulations, people in the administrative unit after the arrangement will continue to enjoy the regime and policies applied by administrative unit as before the arrangement until there is another decision by the competent authority.
